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'My story of growing up in Manchester after fleeing Iran'

Kelly Foranand
Jonny Humphries,North West
News imageBBC Arash Sedighi, now in his 40s, with dark brown hair, light stubble, black framed glasses and an orange overshirt, sitting in a red cinema seat looking past the camera at a screen. BBC
Arash Sedighi moved to Manchester from Iran when he was four years old

A film director who was smuggled out of Iran to the UK as a child to escape war has said it was important to hear the stories of refugees as war rages in his home country.

Arash Sedighi arrived in north-west England in 1986, when he was four, after his parents fled the Iran-Iraq war,

Sedighi said his pregnant mother, his father and he were smuggled out of the country with two suitcases of belongings to their name and he was plunged into an alien world in Manchester.

His experiences form the plot of Holding on to Home, a short film which has already attracted positive responses at other film festivals, and is set to be screened at Manchester Film Festival.

"Now we see the conflict in the Middle East and the war in Iran, there will be a lot more refugees," he told the BBC .

"I think it's important right now to listen to more refugee stories and I think and I hope that people see something new in it - because it's about a child trying to fit in."

News imageA cinema screen shows a young boy in a plain red school jumper standing in a playground next to a teacher in a grey jacket, red tie and white shirt. A man with thinning black hair and a woman with black hair and glasses watch on from a set of red cinema seats.
The film explores the young lead character's experiences trying to adapt to life in Manchester

Sedighi's character is played by Sam Abbasi.

Speaking about his lead actor, he said: "He sort of has my semi-consciously sad look as well, as a child. Trying to fit in, self-conscious."

The film was nominated for best British film at the 2025 Norwich Film Festival and was an official selection for the Spirit of Independence Film Festival.

A thread running through the film is set of marbles Sedighi's father brought from Iran - his only possession from his childhood.

In his introduction to the film, Sedighi wrote: "The next day, I went to school with my father's marbles and lost them in a game."

Sedighi said: "I remember my childhood as a comfortable one, but looking back, I know it must have been a difficult transition for my parents.

"My father worked as a cook in a nursery, as a taxi driver, and finally as a qualified social worker. My parents worked hard to make my younger brother and I feel like we belonged."

Manchester Film Festival runs from 19 to 28 March at venues including HOME, Odeon Great Northern, Northern Light Cinema, Aviva Studios and Flix at the Treehouse Hotel Manchester.

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